Retired general, lawyer spar on national security, privacy

Retired Army Gen. David Bramlett teamed up with civil rights lawyer Ben Wizner to teach a weeklong seminar to University of Hawaii law students this month, respectfully sparring over how to balance national security and individual privacy.

Wizner is the attorney for Edward Snowden, whose release of classified National Security Agency documents sparked a global debate over how far governments should go in electronic surveillance of their citizens.

The seminar, “Liberty and Security in the Age of Terrorism,” was part of January Term, or J-term, which offers bonus minicourses during winter break that bring leading legal scholars and advocates to the Manoa campus.

“Where do we set the dial, and how do we make sure it gets set in the right place?” asked Wizner, noting that Snowden revealed the government’s wholesale capture of phone call records. “Does it bother you that they’re sitting in a government file? Every phone call is turned over to the NSA and stored for five years.”

Wizner is director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy & Technology Project.

Bramlett said the country needs tools to keep it safe, and in some cases that might include collection of metadata from cellphone calls. Still, safeguards are needed to avoid unauthorized use of such data, he said.

“We talk about how bad apples used some of the data to discredit individuals — that’s the frailty of my position,” he said. “I worry about abuse.”

Bramlett retired in 1998 after a career capped by serving as commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command.

Wizner and Bramlett held a lively discussion involving students, attorneys and members of the public on the last day of their seminar.

Also offering J-Term classes were Richard Lazarus of Harvard Law School, who taught “Environmental Law in the U.S. Supreme Court”; Harold Koh of Yale Law School, who taught “21st Century International Human Rights”; and Robert Gordon of Stanford, who taught “The American Legal Profession: Its Past, Present and Possible Futures.”

Third-year law student Rebecca Soon said she valued the opportunity to immerse herself in niche areas of law through the J-term classes.

“Professors are highly accomplished in their fields, have a deep passion for their work and travel from around the world to be with us,” said Soon, who took “Liberty and Security” and “International Human Rights.” “Both were the perfect examples of the kind of unique content that J-term is able to explore with world-renowned lawyers in the field.”